Final Report (September 1999) - Law Reform Commission of ...

REVIEW OF THE CRIMINAL

REVIEW OF THE CRIMINAL AND CIVIL JUSTICE SYSTEM can and should be made. However, any proposed reforms must recognise and respect the considerable strengths of a system which has evolved and been carefully refined over a considerable period of time. 28

4 The Criminal System The criminal justice system 4.1 After the colonisation in 1829 and the establishment of courts in Western Australia in 1832, judge-made ‘common law’ inherited from England formed the basis of the State’s criminal law. Following the development of a Criminal Code in Queensland by Sir Samuel Griffiths in 1899, a Criminal Code was enacted in Western Australia in 1902 to provide a legislative basis for the criminal law. The Code of 1902 and subsequent amendments were compiled in the Criminal Code Act 1913 (WA) and, although amended many times since, that Act continues to define and codify many criminal offences in Western Australia today. 4.2 Nevertheless, the procedure of the criminal justice system is not fully set out in the Code alone and nor does the Code contain all offences dealt with by the courts. Other significant legislation in the Western Australian criminal justice system includes the Justices Act, the Evidence Act 1906 (WA) (which does not codify the law of evidence), the Police Act 1892 (WA), the Road Traffic Act 1974 (WA) and the Misuse of Drugs Act 1974 (WA). There are also Criminal Practice Rules (WA) which set out court procedure for trying charges, but only in the higher courts. These rules have been under review since some time before 1994, although the current draft remains concerned only with higher court processes. So, in spite of having a ‘code’ for the criminal law of Western Australia, in reality the system as a whole is somewhat piecemeal. An offence is committed 4.3 The criminal justice system first begins to operate when a crime comes to the attention of police or other authorities. A crime may be reported or detected through other means. Many crimes go undetected and unreported. These incidents remain outside the realm of the criminal 29